Job growth continues slow grind

The U.S. economy added 157,000 jobs in January as the unemployment rate rose slightly to 7.9 percent, federal economists reported Friday.

The jobs number, which leaves the unemployment rate essentially unchanged, could soothe some of the renewed economic anxiety in Washington, coming two days after news that the U.S. economy shrank in the fourth quarter of 2012 — the first contraction since the height of the recession in the summer of 2009.

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But while January job growth was enough to stave off fears of a return to recession, it was not enough to bring down the unemployment rate, handing Republicans a talking point to ding President Barack Obama on his stewardship of the economy.

“This is the wrong time for President Obama to scrap his jobs council and delay his budget. Month after month we see the same thing: high unemployment and even more debt,” House Speaker John Boehner said in a statement, referencing the president’s decision Thursday to allow the council to disband.

The jobs figure is the first since Congress and the White House briefly went over the fiscal cliff, only to quickly engineer a deal to extend the Bush-era tax cuts for most Americans. And it comes as Congress hurtles toward two news fiscal deadlines - the start of the sequester March 1, and a possible government shutdown in late March.

“While more work remains to be done, today’s employment report provides further evidence that the U.S. economy is continuing to heal from the wounds inflicted by the worst downturn since the Great Depression,” said Alan B. Krueger, chairman of the White House’s Council of Economic Advisers, in a blog post. “Today’s report is a reminder of the importance of the need for Congress to act to avoid self-inflicted wounds to the economy. The Administration continues to urge Congress to move toward a sustainable Federal budget in a responsible way that balances revenue and spending, and replaces the sequester, while making critical investments in the economy that promote growth and job creation and protect our most vulnerable citizens.”

Economists largely dismissed the fourth quarter growth report as the result of one-time events and said Friday’s jobs report would reveal more about the health of the U.S. economy.

Federal economists Friday also added to their job growth estimate for December, moving from an initial count of 155,000 to 196,000. They also made a major upward revision for November, now estimating the economy tacked on 247,000 jobs in the month, up from an initial count of 146,000.

The jobs number has a margin for error of 100,000, while the unemployment rate’s margin for error is about 0.2 percent.

Federal economists estimate the economy added an average of 181,000 jobs per month in 2012, a growth rate strong enough that it indicates a slow-but-steady recovery from recession, but far from enough to dramatically reduce unemployment.

The nation’s ranks of unemployed swelled to 12.3 million in January, up slightly from the month before. Of the unemployed, nearly 40 percent — 4.7 million — have been unemployed for six months or longer.

The civilian labor force remained unchanged for the month, currently encompassing 156 million workers who make up 63.6 percent of the population.